Chapter 26: Settling In! A Temporary Home!
"Well, that was a bust!" Kisara fumed as she stomped away from her father's office. "I can't believe daddy's never even heard of Pendulum Cards!"
"True, that is unfortunate," Yuri agreed, following her. "But no matter. You're a strong and attractive Duelist, with or without some stupid Pendulum trick," he consoled her.
"Why thank you," Kisara smiled.
Suddenly she whirled on her ankle, turning towards Yuri, and pulled him in for an unexpected kiss. Yuri, long used to his girlfriend's seemingly random mood swings, accepted it, wrapping his arms around her and stroking her back. She was a fiery, passionate kisser, and he responded in kind, with his calm, sly mannerisms bleeding through his lips.
Equally suddenly, she pulled away and stared into his eyes, piercing his soul. She liked what she found there, the cold, ruthless malevolence of a skilled assassin, qualities that promised death to anything in his path.
He stared back with a smirk, sensing the raging, burning fury of the unstoppable beast that Kisara hid so well behind a veil of childish playfulness and passive-aggressive niceties. "How about we go somewhere tomorrow? Hit the mainland, have some fun. Take a break," Yuri suggested with a rare genuine smile.
Kisara playfully kissed him on the cheek, and winked, her ocean-blue eyes glistening in the sunlight. "It's a date. I'll meet you at the jetty at ten," she promised, before turning and skipping away as though she lacked a care in the world.
And she probably did, Yuri thought to himself. After all, who knew what exactly went on in her strange, inhuman mind?
Kisara pounded a very important question to herself.
'Should I wear my fancy clothes to the date, or play it casual?'
X
"We're gonna need to figure out the sleeping arrangements," Yuke declared, looking at the assembled Lancers.
"I'll bunk with Flare. As the only girls here, it makes sense that we share," Katie smiled. Flare nodded. "Thanks,"
"I'Ve slept in places a lot more uncomfortable than this. I don't mind," Shun shrugged.
"I wouldn't mind sharing, but just so you know, I'm a horrible snorer," Sawatari offered.
Gong had already produced an old-fashioned Japanese mat and was unrolling it.
Yuke frowned, but shrugged. "I guess that means you're in my room, Yuya," he shrugged at his counterpart, and Yuya nodded. "I'll take the couch," Sawatari grinned.
"I think there's some spare linen in one of the cupboards or something?" Katie offered Shun, and he nodded. "I'll have look around,"
"If you have any leftovers, can you give me a call?" the blonde requested. "I'll consider it," was his dispassionate response.
"I'll start making dinner," Katis decided, turning to go to the kitchen, her long, bushy tail trailing behind her. Flare was about to speak up, but clamped her mouth shut. "Don't worry too much about cooking for me," she managed to squeak.
Yuke sat down next to Yuya. "So, what were all those fancy Summon methods you used? Pendulum, and Fusion, and Xyz? How do you do that?"
"I guess I can show you how to do it, but you'd need the actual cards that you'd use to facilitate it," Yuya frowned.
"I've got plenty of stuff for Synchro and Xyz. I can spare a couple of my extra Rank 3 and 4s, and you saw how many cards I dug out of the trash in Synchro Dimension. Eurgh," Flare started, clutching her head. "Take your pick," she offered, gesturing at the two backpacks full of both cards and spare clothes she and Shun had dumped next to the TV.
"Wow, really? Thanks!" Yuke grinned. "I'm so gonna have to show Katie all this!"
X
"So, where'd this place come from?" Gong asked, gesturing at the house they stood in as the short fox girl leapt up and started pulling things out of cupboards and draws.
"Stuff just shows up totally randomly after it falls out of the conventional dimensions," Katie shrugged. "It can be good or bad. The house me and Yuke grew up in was crushed by what we think was a piece of a car park a couple of years ago. A few days later, this place showed up out of nowhere and we moved in. It's a bit big for just the two of us, but we don't mind, and now you're here!" she grinned.
"Weird," Gong shrugged.
"That's how things work in the Crashlands," Katie nodded, setting the stove alight and putting some water on to boil. "How does pasta sound to you?"
"Pretty good," Gong nodded. "So, ah, I know Gong probably shouldn't ask, but,"
"You mean these, right?" Katie cast him a knowing look, twitching her vulpine ears.
"Yeah. Were you, ah, born with them, or what?" Gong frowned.
"Born. There's just something about this place that makes some of the people who were conceived here different in one way or another. You saw what happened to Yuke earlier," she winced, and Gong nodded. "With me, I think it might have been because of this," she reached into her sleeveless shirt and fished out a card from underneath it. The card was encased in plastic and hung around her neck, and she pulled it off, before handing it to Gong. "Fox Fire," he read the card name. The artwork declared a small fox with a tiny flame at the top of its tail.
"It was my mum's. She used to keep it with her all the time. Heh, she used to say that a little bit of this card's spirit must have been transferred to me while she was pregnant with me, and that's why I have these," Katie giggled, shaking her sleek orange tail a bit, before the smile left her face and her extra appendage drooped.
"Did something happen?" Gong asked.
"When our old house was destroyed," Katie started. "Well, their bodies were never found, so we don't know for sure, but, it's been two years now, so," she choked, and on impulse rushed to the larger man and clutched at his waist. Gong was taken aback by this, and awkwardly stroked her head. "Er, there there?" he frowned.
"All they ever found was her Deck and Duel Disk," Katie sniffed, raising her left arm. Gong took a closer look, and now that he could get a closer look at it, he could see that some of the edges of the device were charred and singed. "Oh," he trailed off.
Suddenly, the girl cocked her head, tilted it upwards and sniffed. "Oh crap, I think the chicken's burning!" She let go, wheeled and dashed to the oven, swinging it open and wrapping her hands in a tea-towel, before pulling a tray containing several pieces of chicken out of the oven.
"So, this place hasn't been affected by the interdimensional war at all, huh?" Shun queried, sweeping into the kitchen and starting to search through the cupboards.
Katie blinked in surprise. "What war?"
"You've never heard of Obelisk Force?" Shun tried a different tack for clarification, and was rewarded by a mystified look from the fox girl. "I'll take that as a no. Be very happy,"
X
"What are you doing?" Yuke looked over at Flare, who was fiddling with her Duel Disk. "Trying to figure out how to trigger the remote activation app I installed on this thing to connect to the dimensional portal in Heartland,"
Yuke stood up in shock. "You think you might be able to open a portal out of here?"
"Maybe. I learnt some stuff from my dad. Why?"
"No one's ever managed to leave the Crashlands before. Everyone who's ever come here has stayed until they died of old age," Yuke explained.
"Well, I'm gonna be the first," Flare declared.
At that moment, Katie rushed in. "Good news and bad news," the girl offered.
"Yeah?" Yuya questioned.
"Good news is, we've got just about enough food left for everyone to have a good meal," the girl smiled.
"Bad news?" Flare frowned.
"We're out of food," Katie frowned.
"Nuts. We'll have to go into town tomorrow," Yuke sighed.
"Is that bad?" Yuya frowned, and his counterpart shrugged. "Me and Katie'll be fine, but you lot will have a problem. Extra Decks are kinda legendary around here. If people find out you have some, then they'll stop at nothing to get them off you. One way or another," the boy frowned.
"That's not happening," Flare growled.
"I know," Yuke nodded. "And we can't take the chance that we'll be able to get through the entire trip without Duelling," He sighed. "There's only one thing for it,"
"What is it?" Sawatari, who had been lying on the floor and finally gotten sick of being ignored, demanded.
A smirk flashed across Yuke's face. "Me and Katie'll have to teach you all to Ritual Summon,"
X
"Whoa. That's a lot of cards," Sawatari breathed. There were stacks of old cards piled up in the attic, some as tall as Katie . . . who was, admittedly, the shortest person there by at least four inches.
"There's a ton of old Ritual stuff lying around here. Take a look, see if you can find something you like,"
"I'm not sure if I need this," Gong admitted. "The only monsters in my Extra Deck are Synchro monsters, and I'm pretty new at those, too. I think I'll be fine just going back to my old Tribute Summon strategies,"
Yuke frowned. "It'll be odd, but not so odd that someone will get suspicious. You should be fine,"
"What about Pendulum?" Sawatari broached the subject. "I don't have an Extra Deck outside of my Pendulum monsters,"
Again, Yuke frowned. "Well, I don't think anyone's ever heard of it, and it isn't like it relies on the Extra Deck totally," He shrugged and grinned. "Eh. What the hell? Go for it,"
Yuya was randomly searching through the stacks, searching for a couple of good Ritual Monsters that could possibly act in substitute for his Fusion, Synchro and Xyz monsters. Flare had a more methodical approach, and paused in surprise when she came upon a particular card. "Lord of the Red," she read the card text, and nodded. "It'll do,"
Shun, though, was having difficulty. While Gong and Sawatari's Decks needed little to no changes, and Yuya and Flare weren't having too much trouble altering their Decks to be capable of blending in, Shun's Raidraptors were completely reliant on his Extra Deck. "Urgh!" he finally fumed, dropping the cards he was furiously sorting through. "It's no good. This just won't work!" he groaned, reassembling his Deck and pocketing it.
Katie gulped, her tail twitching. Shun kind of scared her.
"Well, then there's nothing for it," Yuke shrugged.
"What are you talking about?" the black Duelist snapped.
Yuke walked over to a shelf and pulled a small black box down from it. The Ritual Duelist blew dust off the box and turned to Shun - but paused as Shun rose and looked down at the box, reaching out to take it, but Yuke wouldn't let go.
The boy looked the elder Duelist in the eye, taking a deep breath. "This Deck used to belong to my father. Since I lost him, I have done everything I can to preserve this, the last thing I have left of him. Can I trust you to take care of it?" he demanded.
Shun blinked. This . . . was a surprise. He solemnly nodded. "I understand. I will make sure it comes to no harm," he promised.
"You'd better," Yuke agreed, handing him the box. "Don't make me regret this," he commanded, and turned away.
Behind them, Flare turned in surprise as Katie leapt into the pile of cards, digging through them until she spotted what she was looking for. "Here. You'll need this," she grinned, giving Flare the card. It was a Ritual Spell Card. The one that matched with the Lord of the Red she had found.
"Come on, come on, I'll show you how to use it," the fox girl grinned, and Flare couldn't help but smile back, following her down to her room. The boys watched them go.
"Is she always like that?" Sawatari whispered.
"What about dinner?" Gong frowned.
Yuke's eyes shot open. "Dinner! Crap!" And with that, he dashed out the door and down to the kitchen.
X
"So, after I play the Spell, I Tribute monsters whose Levels add up to eight and then Ritual Summon this guy?" Flare asked for confirmation, holding up Lord of the Red.
Katie excitedly nodded. "Exactly! And it's really weird that your cards actually already work well with it,"
"Yeah. Odd coincidence," Flare nodded as she finished stripping out the cards in her Deck that were completely designed for Synchro and Xyz Summon - Fusilier Dragon, Glow-Up Bulb, Galaxy Queen's Light, etc - and replacing them with cards designed to facilitate Ritual Summons.
"So, are you going to tell me exactly what you are?" Katie said in a way that was so off-hand that it took a second for Flare to register exactly what she had said. When she did, she frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Katie shot her a knowing smile. "You're a good actor, I'll give you that. Any human would be totally fooled, and, I think they all are, so props for that," she smirked, twitching her ears. "But fox noses don't lie,"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Flare stammered, but she knew that she wasn't fooling Katie.
Katie patiently looked at her. "Oh please. We both know that out of the two of us, I'm the one who's more human. And I have a tail," she joked, but seeing Flare shiver, the smile left her face. "Hey. I'm good at keeping secrets. If you've got a good reason not to tell them, just tell me what it is, and I won't," she coaxed.
The redhead took a deep breath - a futile effort, as she immediately buried her head in her knees and mumbled something so quietly that even Katie's sensitive vulpine ears couldn't catch it. "Huh?"
"I'm worried what they'd think if they knew," she sighed. "I've been keeping it hidden for years. My dad and my best friend were the only ones who knew, and they're both dead now," she sniffed.
"Because of this war Shun mentioned?" the fox girl asked, a curious eyebrow cocked. When Flare looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. "I'm young, but I'm not stupid. The way that Shun guy acts, it's obvious Duelling is a lot more than a game to him. There's some kind of interdimensional Duelling war going on outside the Crashlands, isn't there?"
Flare nodded, and opened one of the compartments on her Duel Disk, pulling the card that contained her father's soul out and showing it to her new friend. She blinked, not quite understanding what she was seeing, before realisation struck. Her tail bristled as a quiet growl echoed from her throat. "What kind of monster would do something like that?"
"Obelisk Force," the redhead spat, shaking her head to clear the memory away.
There was a knock on the door, and, after Katie offered permission, her tail twitching in irritation as she rolled her eyes, Gong entered, bearing a plate of food in each hand. "Enjoy," he grinned. The younger girl's eyes shot open in realisation. "I forgot about dinner!"
"Don't worry, Yuke and Shun took care of it," Gong reassured her, before spotting what Flare was holding. "Oh. Uh, I'll be going now," he gulped, setting the plates on the floor and hastily backing out. Flare listened carefully to make sure he was gone before continuing.
"Without my dad and Allen, I'm the only one who knows what I really am," she admitted. "And if the other Lancers found out, they'd think I'm a monster," she sniffed, burying her head in Katie's shoulder, who gently stroked her back. "There, there. Tell me all about it," she coaxed her friend.
X
"What a day it's been," Yuya reflected as he lay on the spare mattress Yuke had helped him set up in his room as the sun set outside of the window. "Has it really only been, like, ten hours since I was Duelling Yugo? God, it feels like it was so much longer," he groaned as Yuke entered the room, clad only in a set of boxers that served as his pyjamas. Yuya, likewise, had taken off his shirt and, having left all his spare clothes in the Duel Palace in Synchro Dimension, was borrowing a set of Yuke's undergarments for sleepwear. It was very fortunate that they were the same size. Just a perk of being interdimensional counterparts, Yuya reflected.
A warm, tiny body pressing against his made him pause. "Junior?" he blinked, pulling back the covers to reveal the little dragon trying to get comfortable. "Where'd you come from?"
"Whoa," Yuke blinked, crouching to get a closer look at the dragon, who shied away under the attention. "That is so cool! What is it, Solid Vision?"
Yuya shook his head. "Er, I'm pretty sure he's a Duel Spirit that can take physical form. I think. I'm not really sure," he shrugged.
"Well, I want one," Yuke grinned, extending his finger and trying to tickle the little dragon under the chin.
Junior promptly tried to hide in Yuya's armpit.
"I don't think he likes you," the entertainer bashfully shrugged.
"Ah well. Maybe tomorrow. Night!" his friend grinned, flipping the lightswitch and plunging the room into darkness.
X
The next morning dawned bright and early. Katie's room had a bunk bed and Flare woke with daybreak, stretching and yawning, and feeling that a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She peeked down at the bottom bunk to see the younger girl curled up in her blankets, her head buried beneath her tail. It felt so incomprehensibly good to know there was, once again, someone else who knew her secret, and didn't care. Deciding not to wake her, she quietly crept out of the room and downstairs.
The redhead carefully stepped over Gong, who for some reason had chosen to sleep in the hallway of all places, and was unsurprised to see Shun already awake and dressed, swaddled in his greatcoat. She offered a flippant "Morning," and opened the fridge, procuring an apple and noisily biting into it. In the absence of anything better to do, she removed her Duel Disk and returned to fiddling with its settings, attempting to zero in on the interdimensional beacon she knew the portal in Heartland should be emitting.
"You're still trying to reopen the portal, aren't you?" Shun asked. "Yup," Flare nodded.
"So, the only place we can go from here is Heartland?" he continued, and the redhead nodded again. "From there, I can use the portal to take us all back to Synchro Dimension again and catch up with the other Lancers,"
"Do you think Yuke and Katie will come with us when we leave?" Shun asked his last question.
Flare paused. "I don't know. I hope they will, but they might have some reason to stay here we don't know yet,"
"Well, if there is, we haven't found it yet," Yuke grinned as he strutted in. "If you've got a way off this trashy rock, I'm in,"
"Great. But first I need to figure out the right wavelength to trace the transmission," Flare squinted.
"Let me take a look. I was the one who set that beacon so that me and Yuto could return from Standard, I know it better than you do," Shun groaned, and Flare obligingly handed it over.
"Gotta warn you, though, don't say anything about it in town. Getting out of the Crashlands is gonna be a popular prospect for a lot of people who would happily do anything to get off this rock," Yuke warned them.
"Friendly place you have around here," Shun observed, and the Ritual Duelist shrugged. "That's how things work. There's no government or anything to keep the peace. If someone thinks you have something they want, they'll do whatever they have to to take it. The trick is to make people think that you don't have anything they want," he smirked.
"When in reality we have a lot. Extra Decks, a possible escape back to the real world, things people around here would kill for," Shun mused.
"Well, we could come back for them after the war's over," Flare suggested. "Yeah, that'll be popular," Yuke snorted, putting on a sing-song voice. "Okey dokey, I'm gonna go home, leaving you all stranded here, and tell you all that I'll come back for you and give you no reason to believe me but my good word, which for all you know is worth less than a pile of rat droppings, and I myself have no reason to come back here outside of feeling sorry for you all, but I'm definitely going to do it anyway, so ta-ta! See you all possibly never again!" he snorted. "Everyone's gonna love that,"
Flare winced. "Well, when you put it that way,"
"Everyone enjoy their sleep?" Gong rumbled, entering the room.
"Best I've had in a long while," Flare admitted. Shun shrugged as the man stretched. "Glad to see you're feeling better, Flare," Gong grinned. "Guess I just needed to adjust,"
Yuya slipped in through a side door and yawned, followed by Sawatari. "Good morning, my adoring public," the blonde 'greeted' everyone.
He was promptly met with an apple core to the face.
"Y'now, traditionally you throw tomatoes," Yuke smirked, opening the fridge and extracting a red fruit. Sawatari blanched. "Wha - hey hey hey! This is a new shirt!" Sure enough, the blonde was dressed in a dark blue formal shirt with baggy pants and smart-looking, if dirty, trainers.
"I know. It's mine," Yuke deadpanned, instead pulling out a knife and cutting the tomato into pieces.
"So, we're just waiting on Katie now," Gong observed.
"She could be a while. My sister takes ages to get ready in the morning. If any of you haven't showered yet, do it now. She takes forever," Yuke recommended.
Gong and Sawatari's eyes shot open, and they dashed upstairs towards the house's only shower cubicle - only to find it locked already and the faint sound of humming could be heard as Katie, humming, undressed and started running the hot water in the shower. Gong groaned and retreated to the kitchen, while Sawatari opted to wait by the door.
"Wait, Katie's your sister?" Yuya blinked at his counterpart, who nodded. "Didn't you realise?"
"I think what he means to say is the two of you look nothing alike," Flare explained.
"That's Crashland mutation for you," the blue-haired Duelist shrugged, and Gong chuckled. "Oh, it's not just that. See, Katie's counterpart in the dimension me and Yuya come from is a girl named Yuzu. And," the big man leant in and whispered something in Yuke's ear. Seconds later, the boy burst out laughing. "Seriously? Oh man, Katie would love that!"
"What did he say?" Yuya frowned.
"I'm guessing it amounted to 'Yuya's in love with Yuzu'," Flare nonchalantly shrugged, then chuckled at the way Yuya's face turned as red as Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's scales. "I am not!"
"Yes. That is why you've been jumping between dimensions, relentlessly searching for her," Shun decided to at least try to get in on the joke.
Everyone except Yuya burst out laughing.
Upstairs, Sawatari hammered on the door. "Come on, what's taking so long? Are you shampooing your tail or something?"
Katie, who had been in the middle of rubbing soapy lotion into the orange fur of her tail, froze. "Are you peeping through the keyhole or something, you pervert?"
Sawatari blinked. "What? No! I'm not into that weird sort of thing anyway!"
Katie growled. "Oh, that's it! When I'm done in here you are gonna pay for that!" she shrieked.
The blonde blanched. "Take all the time you need," he lamely finished, quietly backing away.
The people in the kitchen heard almost every word. "Should you do something about that?" Yuya suggested to his counterpart, who shook his head. "I told you, Katie's sensitive about her, er, differences. Whatever she's gonna do to Sawatari, he has coming,"
"That wasn't quite what I meant," Yuya whispered, but shrugged.
A/N
A/N
Okay, whoa. I had no idea that filler about having dinner, learning to Ritual Summon and two not-quite-humans having a heart-to-heart could possibly get blown up so much . . . Awesome! :) Sorry there was no Duel, but good plot development, right? :)
Anyway. Next time, they'll all actually do something! XD
Just in case Katie's explanation was a bit confusing, she and Yuke don't understand Berserk Mode, but, it's a lot easier to induce it in the Crashlands, due to the different physics. They assume it's some kind of weird power he was born with.
So, no new cards. Boo. But double update, so, woot! Peace! :)